Traffic camera feeds deliver video images to users over the Internet. Such feeds are becoming both abundant and familiar to Internet users.
In one implementation, a user is presented with an array of available camera feeds for a geographic region of interest. Each feed may be represented as a thumbnail image so that multiple feeds can be seen at the same time. For easier viewing, the user can select and enlarge a thumbnail image.
In another implementation, a relatively conventional map (e.g., a street map) is displayed, in which the streets and highways are represented as lines. The map also includes icons that show the locations of traffic cameras. The user can click on one of the icons to select a traffic camera and display its feed.
The formats described above are useful to a limited extent, but they also have shortcomings that prevent their full potential from being realized. For example, it may be difficult for a viewer to understand which direction a camera is facing or which street the camera is recording. Compounding this problem, the orientation of the camera may change dynamically over the course of a day. Also, feeds from different cameras may be captured at different times, making it difficult for a viewer to assimilate the information from each of the feeds. These problems become more acute as the number of traffic cameras increases. For example, in some cities, streets are monitored using thousands of cameras.